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Editors' Review

Calling TechSmith's SnagIt a screen capture tool is a bit like calling a Swiss Army Knife a knife. Yes, it's first and foremost a screen capture tool, and a very good one at that. But SnagIt offers a lot more than free gadgets that also capture screen images. In fact, it's much more of a graphics toolkit optimized for capturing and using onscreen images and information than a screen grabber. SnagIt is advanced enough to enhance productivity for business users and other professionals, but it's also easy for home users to start right up with. If you regularly copy images, Web pages, and screen views to save, embed, share, and use in other ways, SnagIt is well worth trying. It's free to use for 30 days.

The first thing we realized when we downloaded and opened SnagIt is that it offers a lot of options, even during setup. SnagIt includes specific add-ons and output tools for each Office application; choosing the custom installation option let us keep from installing features we don't use. A Disk Cost counter tracked the space SnagIt used, too. The next thing we noticed is that SnagIt comes with lots of help, especially when you click "I'm New to SnagIt" when the setup wizard finishes. A video tutorial, online manual, and simple yet intuitive interface make SnagIt easy to pick up. SnagIt not only offers multiple ways to capture screen images, Web pages, and other data and elements but also to use your captures, such as the built-in SnagIt Editor, OneClick operations, SnagIt Printer, and various output profiles. There's even a freehand option that lets you draw your selection. A system tray menu let us quickly access SnagIt's features and settings.

There's an old cartoon in which a wee lad has just downed five or six ice cream sodas. He says to the man behind the counter, "And now I want to thank you very, very much." The look on the guy's face sums up how software makers feel about the sweat of their brow. SnagIt offers a lot more than just a vastly superior screen capture tool. It's worth the price.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Snagit 11.0.

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Publisher's Description

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From TechSmith:
With Snagit's capture, edit, organize and share technology... it's easy to create engaging visuals that grab attention and keep it. Let images do the talking for you. Use Snagit to capture any image you want straight off your computer screen. Enhance with transparency, callouts, and other effects to turn a simple screen shot into an eye-grabbing visual. Easily organize your images and use them again and again for other projects. Then show off your Snagit creations to anyone. Just add them to your documents and presentations... or share using your favorite applications. It doesn't take much to explain a concept or an idea with Snagit. The images you create do the talking. And the more you use Snagit, the more ways you'll find to use it!

I needed something to pull together lots of posters, display materials and website content for a report. Snag It was exactly what i needed, fantastically easy to use, after two days of stress within 2 hours I couldn't take the smile off my face - it's that good!

Easy to use interface requires no 'formal' training. It's one of those apps where you can pretty much intuit how to use it. It caches/auto-saves screenshots into a library for easy-to-get-to reference/re-use--that saved me more than once!

Cons

I love the stamps. I wish more of them came with the app rather than only offered as a for-purchase upgrade/add-on.

Summary

I've used other screen capture apps. Snagit 10.0 is by far the easiest to use. It has the features that I need (ability to select what to capture, manipulation of capture in an easy-to-use graphics editor) and some features that I needed but didn't know that I needed (caching of screen captures in an auto-save library, tagging, stamps).

Download the app and use the trial period to give it a workout. I think you'll find that it's one of the best screen-capture apps available for people who aren't graphic artists and don't need to do intensive graphics editing.

Intuitive and feature rich. Excellent support information and how-to videos available, though it's not really necessary with this product.

Cons

none so far

Summary

I am constantly capturing and notating maps and other how-to graphics for folks. I used CapturePro for many years but once I switched to Windows 7 it stopped working well and as it turns out is not longer sold or supported. I'm happy that happened because SnagIt is an amazing product.

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